Pickleball 101

What is pickleball?

Pickleball is a paddle sport played on a small court, 20 feet by 44 feet, with a plastic ball full of holes and solid paddles a little bigger than ping-pong paddles. It is usually played as doubles. Points are short, the court is small, and the learning curve is gentle, which is why it has become the fastest-growing sport in the United States.

The game looks like tennis at first glance. It plays very differently. The ball is slow, the serve is underhand, and a 7-foot zone on each side of the net, the kitchen, stops players from smashing volleys at the net. The result is a game of patience and placement, where a 70-year-old with soft hands can beat a 25-year-old with a big serve.

The court

Same size for singles and doubles. The net is 36 inches at the posts and 34 inches in the middle. The kitchen extends 7 feet from the net on each side; behind it, a centerline splits the court into left and right service areas.

Full court dimensions and backyard layouts.

How a point works

1. Serve. The server stands behind the baseline and serves underhand, diagonally, into the opposite service box. The serve must clear the kitchen.
2. Return. The receiver lets the serve bounce, then returns it. The returning team then moves up to the kitchen line.
3. Third shot. The serving team must let the return bounce too (the two-bounce rule), then usually hits a soft drop into the kitchen so they can move to the net.
4. Dink rally. With both teams at the kitchen line, players exchange soft dinks until someone hits a ball high enough to attack.
5. The point ends when a team hits out, into the net, volleys from the kitchen, or lets the ball bounce twice.

Scoring in one minute

Only the serving team can score. Games go to 11, win by 2. In doubles, both partners serve before the other team gets the ball, so the score is three numbers: your score, their score, server number. The game starts at 0-0-2 because the first serving team only gets one server. Serve from the right when your score is even and from the left when it is odd.

Confused? The scoring helper walks you through a game one rally at a time.

Five rules that trip up beginners

• The two-bounce rule. After the serve, the ball must bounce once on each side before anyone can volley.
• The kitchen. No volleys while touching the non-volley zone or its line, and your momentum cannot carry you in afterward.
• Serves cannot land in the kitchen or on the kitchen line. Every other line is in.
• Underhand serve. Contact below the waist with an upward swing, or drop the ball and hit it after the bounce.
• Call the score before you serve. Loudly. It is the rule and the etiquette.

Read the full plain-English rules center, based on the 2026 USA Pickleball rulebook.

What you need

• A paddle. Anything USA Pickleball approved works to start. Around $100 gets a paddle you will not outgrow. The Paddle Finder can match one to you.
• Balls. Outdoor balls for outdoor courts, indoor for gyms. Here is the difference.
• Court shoes. Not running shoes. Why it matters.
• A court. Public parks, rec centers, tennis courts with temporary lines. Finding one.

The shots you will hear about

Dink, drop, drive, reset, volley, lob, Erne, ATP. The shot library explains each one with cues and the drills that build it, and the glossary decodes everything else.

Quick answers